Ladders are often required when attempting to reach the tops of trees or lower locations to, for example, pick its fruit, or to conduct maintenance such as spraying and pruning, particularly walnuts etc. When there are numerous trees as in an orchard, it often becomes cumbersome to continually have to move the ladder from tree to tree to enable the worker to pick its fruit. It would therefore be desirable to provide an apparatus which allows for quick and easy movement of a ladder from tree to tree.
There have been proposed various structures attached to vehicles to support a ladder. Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,236,062, 4,113,055, 4,614,252 and 4,909,352. These references show, for instance, ladders attached to the rear of vehicles as well as ladders placed in the bed of a truck. These references further disclose a ladder support structure where the ladder is physically attached to the structure itself and is moved from location to location by the vehicle. Such proposed structures require a specific vehicle and ladder, and a separate ladder for other uses, thereby increasing costs for the orchard owner.
It is desired to provide a versatile ladder and vehicle configuration which will permit the vehicle and ladder to be used together or separately.